The Tibetan Plateau cryosphere: Observations and model simulations for current status and recent changes

• Published in: Earth-science reviews Vol. 190; pp. 353 - 369
• Main Authors: Yang, Meixue, Wang, Xuejia, Pang, Guojin, Wan, Guoning, Liu, Zhaochen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.03.2019
• Subjects: Climate change; Cryosphere; Distribution; Simulations; Tibetan Plateau; Variation; Tibetan Plateau; Climate change; Simulations; Variation; Cryosphere; Distribution
• ISSN: 0012-8252; 1872-6828
• DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.12.018

Global warming has already had a significant impact on social ecosystems. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), which is characterized by a cryosphere, is also recognized to have a profound influence on regional and global climate systems, as well as the ecological economy. Therefore, research on the cryosphere is of significant importance. This paper comprehensively reviews the current status and recent changes of the cryosphere (e.g., glacier, snow cover, and frozen ground) in the TP from the perspectives of observations and simulations. Because of enhanced climate warming in the TP, a large portion of glaciers have experienced significant retreat since the 1960s, with obvious regional differences. The retreat is the smallest in the TP interior, and gradually increases towards the edges. Glacier simulations are comparatively few and still under development. Snow cover is a highly sensitive element of the cryosphere and decreases with large interdecadal variations from the 1960s to the 2010s in general. Simulations of snow cover mostly focus on the mutual feedback between the snow cover anomaly, climate and atmospheric circulation. In situ observations and simulations both indicate that the mean annual temperature of frozen ground increases, causing permafrost thaw and degradation and decreasing the seasonal freeze depth of seasonally frozen ground. Under future climate warming, the cryospheric elements in the TP will continue to diminish on the whole. Studies of climate and the cryosphere are ongoing. To date, the lack of observations is the biggest challenge on the TP, resulting in a divergence of cryosphere dynamics and its simulation being a bottleneck. To overcome these issues, a strategy that combines sets of in situ and remote sensing measurements and improved numerical models is of great importance for achieving breakthroughs with respect to research on the TP cryosphere and its interaction with climate.